Reviews

Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost Stories by L.P. Hartley, E.F. Benson, M.R. James, W.F. Harvey, Chico Kidd, W.W. Jacobs, Cecily Gayford, Hugh Walpole, E. Nesbit, Edith Wharton, Saki, Rudyard Kipling, Ruth Rendell

kelamity_reads's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this collection more than most classic ghost story anthologies.

The included authors are the usual suspects, however, the story choices had more variety than the usual collections.

sanmeow's review

dark tense medium-paced

3.5

very fun read! 13 victorian horror stories, a collection i decided to read because i needed to pull an all-nighter and had to read something to keep me up. it did keep me up. eerie in a good way. personal favorites are the haunted dolls house and the black veil. the black veil was probably the best story when it comes to the writing. overall, the writing was nothing special and it wasn't anything of super impressive quality, but it was still good and easy to read. 

out_with_lanterns's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

minervacerridwen's review

4.0

I bought this book because of its pretty cover and I'm very glad I did. It's a good collection, showing the range of the classic horror genre, with more strong female characters than I would have expected in stories from the late 19th and early 20th century. In the first story it was even very hard not to read the main character as queer, which made me happy. I also loved the little author biographies, which seemed to say a little more than the 'standard' facts we know about famous writers from the old days.

One of my favourite stories was "Pirates", where it became clear that it doesn't always have to be a monster or a ghost that creeps over us, but that good memories can haunt us as much as fears or bad thoughts. I like it when horror shows that kind of insights about humanity.
Towards the end of the book, the stories offered me fewer surprises, but all in all I'm very glad I read it, because I definitely learned something about the genre.